The Conspiracy Theory

So, as many of you probably know, there is a moderately popular conspiracy theory that touches upon my field of study. Every now and then, students ask me about it, and I try to explain reasonably and neutrally that there isn't any evidence for it, and then move on. Less often, somebody makes a movie or TV show about it, or a complete stranger e-mails me out of the blue to Discuss Their Theories, both of which are situations that can be ignored.

Anyway, this particular conspiracy theory is relatively benign as such things go; that is, it doesn't involve denying historical atrocities, or accusing real people of fictional atrocities. (In its most common form, it does have a certain level of classist subtext, although there are a few variants that don't have the classism, and one or two that would be awesomely feminist if they weren't, you know, wrong.)

So why -- why -- do I always get Someone Is Wrong On The Internet Syndrome whenever I encounter it, such that I find it hard to concentrate on anything else? Aargh.

Mid-semester miscellany

I'm sorry I haven't been around much, somewhat to my own surprise. There's a bit on Phil Ochs's Live in Vancouver, 1968 (an album I've been listening to quite a bit lately, because it feels like 1968 has so much to say to 2017) where he says, "When I came back from Chicago, I thought I'd write thundering protest songs, and I didn't ... It was exhilarating at the time and very sad afterwards, because something very extraordinary died there, and that was America." And, yeah, that's pretty much how I feel; I thought I was going to write lots of blog posts about Teaching in the Trump Era, and ... not so much. I don't even know yet what I think about Teaching in the Trump Era, or whether this is the Death of America or just one of those silly seasons of history that comes along every so often.

So, some non-political bullet points of mid-semester:

-- I'm teaching an Honors section of comp for the first time. It feels like being back in grad school, in some ways: a much more international-student-heavy population, and a level of grade-consciousness, anxiety, and perfectionism that I'd almost forgotten how to deal with. On the other hand, they are very good at paying attention to detail, taking peer workshopping seriously, and actually understanding what they read. I'll take it.

-- This summer's trip to Green Country is mostly coming together. It feels easier the second time, and I'm beginning to be properly excited about it. At first, it felt like "oh joy, all this planning and budgeting and filling-out-of-forms AGAIN," but now that the date is drawing closer, I'm remembering why I liked this the first time and want to do it again. And it will be all new for the students; I need to remember that.

-- My students think Edward II reminds them of Game of Thrones. I cannot wait for Tuesday, when they will encounter Lightborne.

-- The theater department is doing The Taming of the Shrew this spring. They wanted me to cut it down to 90 minutes, so I did. (Poor Christopher Sly and the Hostess and the Lord naturally got the axe, which I feel bad about, because Christopher Sly is important, dammit.) I went to a read-through last night, and got handed the part of Katharina, which I had not bargained for (Katharina and Petruchio will be played by professional actors in the actual production, and the actors haven't arrived yet). I hope I didn't sound too awful. I did get a compliment from one of the theater professors, which was nice, but I was impressed by how good most of the students sounded, already; they clearly knew what they were saying, for the most part, and were ready to put some natural-sounding emotion into it. I'm kind of in awe of actors. I think it's a good way to be.